


Ethics 101

by shifty_cat



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ethics, F/M, Idealism, Makoto Niijima Week, Teaching, Utilitarianism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 07:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20690006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shifty_cat/pseuds/shifty_cat
Summary: What if Makoto was your teacher?





	Ethics 101

“Lex iniusta non est lex. ‘An unjust law is no law at all’. Originally stated by St. Augustine, this maxim has long been a guiding principle both in legal theory and in movements for social reform. In the American Civil Rights Movement, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Augustine’s words as a rebuke of racial segregation. As agents of the law, it is our duty to protect Justice, but we must always be conscious that the law is not Justice itself, but a tool intended to bring us closer to its realization.”

A young woman near the middle of the class raised her hand. “But Niijima-sensei, if Justice is a distinct principle from law, how are we to understand it? What is Justice?”

Makoto Niijima, professor of ethics at Tokyo Metropolitan Police Academy, nodded at her student with a pleased smile. “An excellent question, Shimizu-san, but one for which there is no easy answer. For millennia, the central question of the discipline of ethics has been ‘what is Right Action?’ And by extension, ‘what is Justice?’ In brief, the concept of Justice is generally understood to represent a balance between one’s actions and what one deserves, benefit for right action and punishment for wrong action. How that is to be determined, however, has been debated by philosophers and legal theorists for all of recorded human history, as one of the fundamental questions of social organization.”

“In order to approach an understanding of Justice, then, we must first determine what we consider to be Right Action. Here, again, there are as many approaches as there have been thinkers who have considered the question. For the sake of time, however, we will consider for the moment two of the most prominent schools of thought on the matter: Utilitarianism and Idealism. Beginning with Utilitarianism, could anyone give a brief definition of the idea?”

A clean-cut young man raised his hand confidently, and Makoto acknowledged him with a nod. “Niijima-sensei, Utilitarianism posits that the highest good is to provide the greatest possible benefit to the greatest possible number.”

Makoto smiled and gave him a satisfied nod. “Very good, Katou-san. The general principle of Utilitarianism is maximizing benefit. Derived from the Hedonist philosophical tradition, it turns on the axiom that all humans desire happiness and wish to avoid suffering. Therefore, to increase the amount of happiness and decrease the amount of suffering is ultimately to the benefit of humanity. Generally speaking, this provides a baseline for what is Right or Wrong Action. That which benefits humanity is by its nature Right, while that which increases suffering is Wrong. There are, however, serious challenges to the universality of this principle. Could anyone articulate such a challenge?”

A slightly disheveled young woman raised her hand. “Niijima-sensei, focus on providing benefit for the greatest number can be used to justify causing harm to a smaller group on the basis that the benefit outweighs the cost of their suffering.”

Makoto nodded and raised a thoughtful finger to her chin. “Indeed, Koizumi-san. To illustrate this point, let us conduct a thought experiment: Imagine that you work in a hospital. One of your patients needs a heart transplant, one a liver, one a lung, one a kidney, and so on. Seven patients in total desperately need an organ transplant. Then a man walks in with a minor ailment but with entirely healthy organs. Would killing the healthy man and harvesting his organs to save the lives of your seven patients be Right?”

Her students murmured among themselves, all intuitively feeling that this would not be Right, but having difficulty articulating an argument as to why. After a moment, Shimizu tentatively raised her hand. “Niijima-sensei, to intentionally cause harm to an innocent person is always Wrong, regardless of the benefit that may be derived from the act.”

Makoto gave Shimizu a warm and very pleased smile. “I think that’s a very thoughtful answer, Shimizu-san. It also brings us to the Ethics of Transcendental Idealism as formulated by Kant. The central principle of Kantian ethics is the Categorical Imperative. Would anyone like to provide a brief description of the Categorical Imperative?” 

No one raised their hand. 

“Very well. For Kant, the only intrinsically good thing is a Good Will, that is to say, a Will which acts out of duty to Moral Law. All other virtues can be used to achieve immoral ends, for example the virtue of loyalty when one is loyal to an evil person, but a Good Will remains good even if it fails to achieve its moral aims. In determining Moral Law, Kant’s first principle is universalizability. In other words, one should act in such a way that if your behavior were universally adopted it would remain Good. So Shimizu has argued for the universal principle that one should not harm an innocent person.”

“Kant’s second principle is Humanity as an End in itself, rather than as a means to an end. So, in our thought experiment, if we were to harvest the healthy man’s organs, we would be treating him, in stark fashion, as a means to the end of curing our patients, rather than as a rational being with value as an End in himself. His third principle is Autonomy, that we follow the Categorical Imperative not due to an external influence, but because of our Rational Will. He differentiates between imperfect duty, which is conditional upon circumstances, and a perfect duty, which is unconditional and universal. So, for example, he posits the imperative not to lie as universally, categorically valid.”

She finished with a sigh and looked out across her class. “Can anyone articulate a challenge to Kant’s Ethics?”

A gruff looking young man towards the back of the room raised his hand with a smirk. “Niijima-sensei, it’s too hard to understand.”

Sheepish laughter broke out in the room, and Makoto grinned and held up a hand to quiet her students. “I suspect there’s some truth to that, Oshiro-san. Kantian Ethics can be highly abstract, and difficult to apply to real life. Specifically, it’s difficult to establish the universality of a moral principle, as a single counterexample would refute its categorical nature. Take, for example, Kant’s position that the imperative not to lie is categorical: Imagine that you are living in Nazi occupied Europe and hiding a Jewish family in your home. The SS knocks on your door and asks if you know the whereabouts of any Jews. While it violates the categorical imperative to tell the truth, I hope that all of you would choose to lie to save the family’s lives.”

She gave her students a satisfied nod as they murmured their agreement. Then a nondescript young man raised his hand. “But Niijima-sensei, if two of the most important ethical theories both have serious flaws, what’s the answer? How can we know for sure what’s Right or Just?”

Makoto tapped her finger to her chin. “I don’t think there’s a conclusive answer to that question, Ishikawa-san. I don’t believe there is one transcendental, True Justice, but each person has their own sense of Justice, that can be developed both in the careful examination of ethical theory, and in working to make your own Justice a reality. My goal in presenting two opposed ethical theories, as well as challenges to each, is to have all of you think about the different approaches, and to develop your own senses of Justice.”

A quiet young woman towards the back of the class raised her hand. “What about you, Niijima-sensei? How do you think about your own sense of Justice, and Right and Wrong?”

Makoto had developed a reputation over the course of her career with the police as practically a saint, possessing a clear and brilliant mind, a fierce will, and an unshakable sense of Justice. She nodded to her student and stepped around the podium, supporting her bad leg, where a bullet wound sustained during a hostage situation two years back had sidetracked her rapid rise up the police hierarchy, with a cane, and dropping her professor voice to assume a more conversational tone.

“Well, Akagi-san, I suppose that I first got my sense of Justice from my father. He was an officer, and he was my hero. He worked every day to protect those who were suffering at the hands of criminals. When he was killed in the line of duty, just before I began high school, I felt lost, and withdrew into myself and my schoolwork. Though I became student council president, I was simply progressing automatically in the path I felt had been chosen for me, just doing what I had to do based on the expectations of the authority figures around me.”

“During my third year, terrible crimes were committed at my school. A teacher was abusing the students in his care, both physically and sexually, using his fame and position of power to secure his own immunity and the complicity of the principal. Although I had heard rumors, I failed to act before a student attempted suicide after being raped by him. Once again I felt lost, felt that I had utterly failed the Justice that I had wished to live up to.”

“But in the months that followed, I met a wonderful group of friends with a deep and strong sense of Justice. They refused to stand idly by as people suffered, and found the strength to stand up against injustice, choosing to act even if it meant putting themselves at great risk. With them, I found where I truly belong, and found the Justice that I had longed for. Together, we were able to do more to help the suffering and bring criminals to justice than I had ever thought possible, and it’s thanks to them that I realized my dream to join the force.”

“When I first met my fiance’s father, he described his own interpretation of ethics from a Buddhist perspective. He said that the recognition of our shared state of suffering is the root of compassion, and Right Action stems from that compassion, from a desire to alleviate the suffering of others. There’s a parallel idea within Christianity, a call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort those in despair. But in the case of suffering caused by the evil acts of another, I believe there is an imperative to stop those who cause harm to others. That, for me, is Justice. I refuse to stand idly by and allow evil people to hurt their victims, regardless of their power, or of the risk to myself. Once I found My Own Justice, I vowed to never lose sight of it again.”

As she finished, for a moment there was silence in the classroom, then her students began to respectfully but enthusiastically applaud. With a sheepish smile and a bit of a blush, Makoto held up her hand to quiet the class. “Which brings me to today’s assignment. I would like for each of you to write about what Justice means to you. It could be an experience you had, or an idea that you hold deeply that motivates your desire to work for Justice. There are no wrong answers, but I’d like for you to articulate your own thoughts on the subject, and more importantly, I want you to begin thinking seriously about Your Own Justice, as that will be the fire that drives you on, and the guideline that will keep you on the right path as you continue your career in law enforcement. Five pages, due next Friday. That will be all for today.”

As she followed her students out of the classroom, Makoto noticed a familiar mop of messy black hair across the hall. With a smile, she walked over to its owner, pushed herself up on her cane, and gave him a quick but affectionate kiss.

Akira gave her a proud and loving smile. “How was class, Niijima-sensei?”

She couldn’t help but giggle at the formality of the title, coming from him. “I believe it went well, Representative Kurusu. The students seem engaged, they asked some very good questions, and I think I was able to get them thinking about Their Own Justice.”

He gave her a satisfied nod. “Well, you never lost sight of yours. I think we should celebrate. Sushi?”

A voice cried out from Akira’s bag. “I vote sushi!”

Makoto laughed and rolled her eyes. “Sushi sounds wonderful.”

Akira nodded and wrapped an arm around her waist, supporting her bad leg as they walked together out of the academy.


End file.
